Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Book Review: Examining the Hmong in America

Book Review: Examining the Hmong in America: Dr. Chia Youyee Vang only has hazy, disjointed memories of fleeing Laos with her family in 1979, waiting in a refugee camp in Thailand and coming to the United States when she was 9 years old.

“I often describe it as a film one had seen a very long time ago,” she writes. “One may be able to recall the themes and a few scenes here and there; however, one cannot accurately recount the entire story.”

Vang was one of more than 130,000 of her people who came to the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s. From the early 1960s on, the United States had relied on the Hmong to fight against the North Vietnamese Army, which intruded into Laos during the Vietnam War.

Naomi Campbell: Cadbury Ad 'Insulting & Hurtful'

Naomi Campbell: Cadbury Ad 'Insulting & Hurtful': Naomi Campbell is considering 'every option available,' including a lawsuit, after Cadbury used her name to promote its new Bliss chocolate bar, the Independent UK reports.

The advertisement reads, 'Move over Naomi, there's a new diva in town,' with an image of the candy posed on a mound of diamonds. According to the Independent, Campbell said, 'I am shocked. It's upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me, but for all black women and black people. I do not find any humour in this. It is insulting and hurtful.' Her mother, Valerie Morris, explained, 'I'm deeply upset by this racist advert. Do these people think they can insult black people and we just take it? This is the 21st century, not the 1950s. Shame on Cadbury.'

The Daily Mail writes that black rights groups have backed Campbell's cause. Simon Woolley of the UK's Operation Black Vote, called for a boycott of the brand's products, adding, 'Racism in the playground starts with black children being called 'chocolate bar.'' He has also contacted both Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

The Bilingual Advantage - NYTimes.com

The Bilingual Advantage - NYTimes.com: A cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind. Her good news: Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, was awarded a $100,000 Killam Prize last year for her contributions to social science. We spoke for two hours in a Washington hotel room in February and again, more recently, by telephone.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day parade includes tribute to the only all-black Ranger unit in Army history - The Washington Post

Memorial Day parade includes tribute to the only all-black Ranger unit in Army history - The Washington Post: Just before he jumped out of the plane over North Korea, Herculano Dias’s commander told him that he and his unit were about to make history: The first Army Rangers to parachute in behind enemy lines, and the first Ranger unit made up entirely of black men.

At that moment, Dias was mostly just hoping to land without getting shot and once on the ground, to help take the highest hill in the area.

They were successful that day 60 years ago, seizing critical ground back from the enemy. History was made. And then, largely, forgotten.

The Korean War, sandwiched between two conflicts that defined generations, is often called the Forgotten Victory. And this elite unit, the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne),was never well known. But on Monday, Dias and five other local men were honored at the National Memorial Day Parade, riding a float fluttering with red, white and blue streamers high above a crowd cheering for them.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Lawsuit Accuses Apple Store Of Racial Discrimination

Lawsuit Accuses Apple Store Of Racial Discrimination: A new lawsuit accuses employees at an Apple Store in New York City of telling two black men that they were unwelcome in the store.

According to Apple Insider, the plaintiffs, Brian Johnston, 34, and Nile Charles, 25, are suing Apple for discrimination based on events they say occurred in December 2010, when several employees at Apple's Upper West Side store allegedly forced the men to leave because of their race. The plaintiffs seek punitive damages due to damages based on 'emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, and other non-pecuniary losses.'

The lawsuit says that both men, wearing 'baggy jeans and large sweaters with hoods' went into the store in the afternoon to buy headphones when they were confronted by a white Apple employee in his 50s. The Apple employee, about 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, allegedly came up to the men in an 'intimidating fashion' and said, 'You know the deal. You know the deal.'

Arthur Goldreich, a Leader of the Armed Fight to End Apartheid, Dies at 82 - NYTimes.com

Arthur Goldreich, a Leader of the Armed Fight to End Apartheid, Dies at 82 - NYTimes.com: Arthur Goldreich, who helped lead the armed struggle against apartheid in South Africa and once posed as the operator of a farm where Nelson Mandela, masquerading as his houseboy, plotted revolt, died on Tuesday in Tel Aviv. He was 82.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation announced his death.
As opposition to apartheid shifted toward violence in the early 1960s, beginning with sabotage and progressing to guerrilla war, Mr. Goldreich became a leading planner. He traveled to China, the Soviet Union and East Germany seeking military aid and information on making weapons. He wrote a detailed plan for the overthrow of the South African state and a disciplinary code for guerrillas. He identified possible industrial targets for sabotage.

Gil Scott-Heron, Poet and Music Pioneer, Dies at 62 - NYTimes.com

Gil Scott-Heron, Poet and Music Pioneer, Dies at 62 - NYTimes.com: Gil Scott-Heron, the poet and recording artist whose syncopated spoken style and mordant critiques of politics, racism and mass media in pieces like “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” made him a notable voice of black protest culture in the 1970s and an important early influence on hip-hop, died on Friday at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 62 and had been a longtime resident of Harlem.

His death was announced in a Twitter message on Friday night by his British publisher, Jamie Byng, and confirmed early Saturday by an American representative of his record label, XL. The cause was not immediately known, although The Associated Press reported that he was admitted to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center after becoming ill upon his return from a trip to Europe.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Angela Glover Blackwell: America's Tomorrow: Equity Is the Answer

Angela Glover Blackwell: America's Tomorrow: Equity Is the Answer: The face of America is changing.

And the fate of America hinges on how we react to -- and invest in -- those changes.

By 2042, a majority of Americans will be people of color. Already, California, Texas, Hawaii, New Mexico, and DC have more people of color than whites. And today, nearly half of all children are kids of color.

By definition, if they don't succeed, the nation won't succeed.

There was a time not that long ago when we listened to the voices of tomorrow and invested in our national future. The GI Bill, affirmative action, and strong unions all helped the 'Greatest Generation' establish a potent and stable middle class -- and gave their children tangible hope for the future.

But we aren't doing that any more.

Many in the still-majority white population and political establishment don't see themselves reflected in the faces of America's children. They are talking far more about slashing Medicaid and education funding than investing in the dreams and needs of our children. Too many who have achieved success for themselves now want to pull up the ladder behind them.

Oprah’s Generosity Spurs Past Morehouse Scholarship Recipients to Pledge New Scholarship Funding

Oprah’s Generosity Spurs Past Morehouse Scholarship Recipients to Pledge New Scholarship Funding: As Oprah Winfrey ended her decades-old talk show this week, a grateful group of Morehouse College students and alumni paid homage to the Queen of Talk by paying it forward.

Recalling the academic leg up and second chance Oprah Winfrey’s full-ride scholarships gave them when they were striving and struggling students at the historically Black Atlanta institution, the “Sons of Oprah,” as they are known, announced this week that together they will pledge more than $300,000 of their own money to educate other deserving Morehouse men.

“We’re thrilled to be part of the historic moment, milestone in television history and Oprah’s life and in Morehouse College History,” Morehouse President Robert M. Franklin said in a television news interview after the “Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular” event on Tuesday.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

2010 census: US getting older - US news - Life - msnbc.com

2010 census: US getting older - US news - Life - msnbc.com: Women still outlive men, but the gender gap among U.S. seniors is narrowing.

New 2010 census figures, released Thursday, show men are narrowing the female population advantage, primarily in the 65-plus age group. It signals a shift in the social dynamics of a country in which longevity, widowhood and health care for seniors often have been seen as issues more important to women.

Figures also show the Hispanic population growing four times faster than the total U.S. population.

In all, the numbers highlight a nation that is rapidly aging even as Congress debates cuts in Medicare, an issue with ramifications for the growing ranks of older men.

'We know in the past because of women's longer life expectancy, women put more emphasis on health care issues because they lived to an older age and often had to rely on the pensions of their husbands,' said Jen'nan G. Read, an associate professor of sociology and global health at Duke University.

D.C. region’s Asian population is up 60 percent since 2000, census data show - The Washington Post

D.C. region’s Asian population is up 60 percent since 2000, census data show - The Washington Post: ...Suh lives in one of the most highly concentrated communities of Koreans in the Washington region, according to a Washington Post analysis of census statistics being released Thursday.

The data provide a richly detailed picture of where the region’s 570,000 Asians live. Chinese are most prevalent in the District and Montgomery County, particularly in Rockville and Potomac. Filipinos are the largest group in Prince George’s and Charles counties. Indians are flocking to Loudoun and Fairfax counties and have become the largest and fastest-growing group of Asians in the area. Koreans are the largest group in Centreville, where 26 percent of the population is Asian.

Suh now can choose from two Asian supermarkets within a five-minute drive. One of the region’s largest Korean churches moved to Centreville last year.A huge Korean spa, Spa World, attracts Asians and non-Asians from around the region. At school concerts, Suh notices that most of the orchestra players are Asian.

Racism to blame for Obama's problems, key Democrat says | McClatchy

Racism to blame for Obama's problems, key Democrat says | McClatchy: House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, on Wednesday blamed most of President Barack Obama's political problems on racism.

Clyburn, who's from South Carolina and is a close ally of the president, offered his views in response to a question about Obama's re-election prospects next year.

'I think they're improving every day,' Clyburn said. 'I think the president has been a good president, a great commander in chief.'

Clyburn, who met his wife at a 1960 court hearing after spending a night in jail for having engaged in a civil rights protest in Orangeburg, S.C., then brought up Obama's race as the first black president.

'You know, I'm 70 years old,' he said. 'And I can tell you; people don't like to deal with it, but the fact of the matter is, the president's problems are in large measure because of the color of his skin.'

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

California's Prisons Face Allegations Of Race Discrimination

California's Prisons Face Allegations Of Race Discrimination: The overcrowding in California's state prison system constitutes cruel and unusual treatment, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that focused on decades-long deficiencies in the mental and medical treatment available to inmates.

But the swollen, chaotic state of California's 33 prisons -- 18 of which operate at more than 180 percent capacity -- may lead to another unconstitutional policy: race-based lockdowns. The California system is currently under fire for managing violence among the massive numbers of inmates by confining whole races of individuals to their cells for 24 hours a day during lockdowns that can last for years.

South Carolina Immigration Bill Passed By State House

South Carolina Immigration Bill Passed By State House: South Carolina's House of Representatives approved on Tuesday a comprehensive illegal immigration bill that would allow police to ask for citizenship documentation from anyone they stop or detain for another reason.

It would also allow police to hold a person who fails to provide documentation until their citizenship status is determined.

The Republican-controlled House on Tuesday night voted 69-43 to approve a Senate bill and added amendments. The Senate must concur. If it does not, a conference committee will reconcile the two houses' differences.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is expected to sign the bill.

The South Carolina law also calls for the creation of a special Illegal Immigration Enforcement Unit within the state police department to work with federal Immigration and Customs officials.

HBCU Conference Schools Take Big Hits in Latest NCAA Academic Progress Report

HBCU Conference Schools Take Big Hits in Latest NCAA Academic Progress Report: NCAA President Mark Emmert expects athletes at historically Black colleges and universities to make the grade and he's willing to help after seeing the results of the latest Academic Progress Rates.

The NCAA anned Jackson State and Southern of the Southwestern Athletic Conference from postseason play in football next season and did the same thing for Southern and Grambling in men's basketball, citing poor classroom performance by all three schools and a host of others in the SWAC and Mid-Eastern Athletic conferences.

The SWAC does not get an automatic bid to the NCAA's FCS playoffs, but its own conference title game could be affected.

The NCAA released the penalties Tuesday. Southern became the first school to be banned from the postseason in two sports in the same year football and men's basketball because of academic performance.

Report: Pay Disparities Persist for Minorities and Women With College Degrees

Report: Pay Disparities Persist for Minorities and Women With College Degrees: While bachelor’s degrees bring their holders higher salaries than they would otherwise earn, not all degrees from the various majors have the same economic value, and disturbing pay disparities persist for minorities and women.

Such are two of the major conclusions that can be drawn from a new report released Tuesday and titled What’s It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors.

Produced by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the report—funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates and the Lumina foundations—is meant to take the national discussion about the economic benefits of a higher education to the next level.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Study: Whites Believe Declining Prejudice Against Blacks Comes At Their Expense | TPMDC

Study: Whites Believe Declining Prejudice Against Blacks Comes At Their Expense | TPMDC: It's a phenomenon that any observer of modern U.S. politics senses, but now we have a study documenting it: Despite all the evidence to the contrary, white Americans believe that African Americans' social progress in society is coming at their expense.

A new study conducted by a couple of professors at Harvard Business School and Tufts University reports that 'whites believe that racism against whites has increased significantly, as racism against blacks has decreased.'

The report, published in the May edition of peer-reviewed Perspectives on Psychological Science, is based on a nationwide survey of 208 blacks and 209 whites who were chosen as a representative demographic sample of the wider U.S.' population of whites and blacks, said Tuft's Associate Professor of Psychology Sam Sommers.

Black-White Life Expectancy Gap Expands, Recession May Be To Blame

Black-White Life Expectancy Gap Expands, Recession May Be To Blame: For nearly two decades, the expected life spans of black and white Americans steadily narrowed, offering a hopeful indication of both racial progress and medical success: Everyone was living longer, and the gap was closing.

Then came 2009. For all Americans, the average life expectancy again nudged up for the year, reaching 78 years and two months according to preliminary figures from the Centers for Disease Control. But black Americans saw no improvement in life expectancy, remaining at 74 years and three months.

Some experts construe this unanticipated widening of the black-white life expectancy gap as a product of the Great Recession. The recession extracted brutal economic costs from nearly every slice of American society, particularly from African Americans. Nearly two years after the recession’s official end, black unemployment remains at 16.1 percent compared to the 8 percent of white Americans unable to find work. And it’s the stress that can come with a job loss that some experts say may explain the new size of the life expectancy gap.

Children of Immigrants Are America's Science Superstars

Children of Immigrants Are America's Science Superstars: Adding fuel to the fiery debate over immigration policy, a study released Tuesday shows that top science achievers in the U.S. are overwhelmingly the children of immigrants.

The study, conducted by the National Foundation for American Policy, found that 70 percent of the finalists in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search competition -- also known as the 'Junior Nobel Prize' -- were the children of immigrants even though only 12 percent of the U.S. population is foreign-born.

According to the report, children of immigrant parents have been increasingly dominant in the fields of math and science. In 2004, for example, researchers found that 60 percent of the top science students in the U.S. and 65 percent of the top math students were born to immigrant families.

Gov. Haley Barbour Apologizes to Activists Arrested in Mississippi

Gov. Haley Barbour Apologizes to Activists Arrested in Mississippi: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has apologized to dozens of civil rights activists who were carted off to the state's notorious Parchman prison in the 1960s for attempting to desegregate interstate travel.

“We apologize to you for your mistreatment in 1961, and we appreciate this chance for atonement and reconciliation,” Barbour told the so-called Freedom Riders during a dinner at a Jackson hotel on Sunday.

The Freedom Riders, college students and other activists, who challenged segregation on commercial bus lines, are in Jackson this week to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1961 protest. Barbour is among the leaders hosting them.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Critics Question Effectiveness of U.S. Civil Rights Commission

Critics Question Effectiveness of U.S. Civil Rights Commission: More than halfway through his term, President Obama is moving to wrest control of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from Republican appointees, but questions are being raised about its future and its ability to create a better America for victims of discrimination.

Due to what critics say is its unworkable structure, the commission has been largely ineffective in addressing civil rights issues, even with the recent addition of three Democratic members. An appointee of former president George W. Bush serves as the panel’s staff director, and Bush or Republican congressional leaders chose a majority of its members.

Commissioners unanimously elected a recent Obama appointee, Martin Castro, the new chairman on March 11. A Mexican American, Castro is president of Castro Synergies, based in Chicago. Abigail Thernstrom, a Republican appointee, is vice chairman.

Influential Speakers Inspire 2011 Graduates to Pursue the American Dream

Influential Speakers Inspire 2011 Graduates to Pursue the American Dream: This spring, historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions are hosting a number of influential minority leaders, who are offering pearls of wisdom to the Class of 2011.

President Barack Obama spoke at Miami Dade College on April 29, offering inspirational words for the graduates:

“Class of 2011, you and your generation are now responsible for our future … you are going to be leaders for many years to come.” Obama said. Sharing anecdotes and childhood stories, Obama was able to connect with the students, allowing his own journey to be inspiring stepping-stones for the road that awaits them. “Pursue success,” he said. “Do not falter. When you make it, pull somebody else up. Remember, your life is richer when people around you have a shot at opportunity as well.”

Scholar Khalil Gibran Muhammad to Take Reins at Schomburg Center

Scholar Khalil Gibran Muhammad to Take Reins at Schomburg Center: Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad knows the importance of Black history, perhaps better than most. The Chicago native, who earned a doctorate in history from Rutgers University and has become a rising star within academic circles for his groundbreaking research on race and crime, hails from a distinguished family of history makers.

His great-grandfather, Elijah Muhammad, was the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1934 to 1975. His father, Ozier Muhammad, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The New York Times.

Now, at the age of 39, the assistant professor of history at Indiana University is poised to take the helm of the world’s leading repository of the global Black experience when he becomes director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in July.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Your Career: Downturn a 'Black Mancession' - Business - Careers - msnbc.com

Your Career: Downturn a 'Black Mancession' - Business - Careers - msnbc.com: The Great Recession is sometimes known as the “Mancession” because men were hit so hard by unemployment, but a better term for it might be the “Black Mancession.”

While recent data show white men are finding more job opportunities than they did last year, black male job seekers are still in an economic black hole. In April, the jobless rate among adult white males was 7.9 percent, up from 4.1 percent three years ago but down from 9.3 percent in the same month last year.

Compare that to the jobless rate of 17.0 percent among black men, down from 17.7 percent a year ago but more than double the rate of 8.4 percent three years ago.

“Since the 1920s the two-to-one ratio has defined black-to-white unemployment in the U.S.,” said Charles Gallagher, chair of the sociology department at La Salle University in Philadelphia. But, he added: “This recession has been particularly hard on black men.”

In Alabama, Former Bus Station Honors Civil Rights Heroes - NYTimes.com

In Alabama, Former Bus Station Honors Civil Rights Heroes - NYTimes.com: Freedom Riders who were attacked in Alabama’s capital on May 20, 1961, returned 50 years later to be hailed as heroes and to have a museum dedicated at the old bus station where they were confronted by an angry white mob.

Representative John Lewis of Georgia, who participated in the rides, said he teared up on Friday when he walked through the old Greyhound station where years ago he was beaten and knocked unconscious.

“It says something about the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made in this state and nation,” Mr. Lewis said.

That change was evident in John Patterson, a former Alabama governor. In 1961, he called the Freedom Riders fools and agitators when they set out to integrate Southern bus stations. Now 89, Mr. Patterson welcomed them on Friday and praised them for bringing needed changes.

“It took a lot of nerve and guts to do what they did,” he said after meeting 10 Freedom Riders for the first time.

Show for Black Artists, Even Those Who Dislike Label - Review - NYTimes.com

Show for Black Artists, Even Those Who Dislike Label - Review - NYTimes.com: Some of the knottiest issues in “Embodied: Black Identities in American Art From the Yale University Art Gallery” don’t reveal themselves at the entrance to the show. Instead, they appear later, like in the “Viewer’s Note” on the wall next to Adrian Piper’s photographs from the 1971 series “Food for the Spirit.”

Mounted next to three black-and-white photographs of the artist standing before a mirror, the short statement says that Ms. Piper’s “critique of identity politics and desire to distance herself from being categorized as a ‘black artist’ ” led her to refuse reproduction rights for the work to appear in the exhibition catalog. However, the work has been included in the exhibition anyway to “highlight the urgency” of issues around art and racial identity.

Artists are regularly included in exhibitions dedicated to aesthetic movements or curatorial conceits they don’t agree with. It’s just that “Embodied: Black Identities” deals with a category — race — that historically defined one’s status, not just as an artist, but as a human being in this country.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Illegal Immigrants’ Children Suffer, Study Finds - NYTimes.com

Illegal Immigrants’ Children Suffer, Study Finds - NYTimes.com: ...Even though the children have citizenship and live in an immigrant-friendly city that offers them a wide array of services, many are still hobbled by serious developmental and educational deficits resulting from their parents’ lives in the shadows, according to the study, whose author says it is the most comprehensive look to date at the effects of parents’ immigration status on young children.

“The undocumented are viewed in current policy debates as lawbreakers, laborers or victims — seldom as parents raising citizen children,” wrote the author, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, a Harvard education professor who has published the study as a book, “Immigrants Raising Citizens” (Russell Sage Foundation, 2011).

Professor Yoshikawa found that by the time the children of illegal immigrants reached age 2, they showed significantly lower levels of language and cognitive development than the children of legal immigrants and native-born parents.

Friday, May 20, 2011

John Lewis, Freedom Rider: Interview With a Lawmaker and Civil Rights Icon

John Lewis, Freedom Rider: Interview With a Lawmaker and Civil Rights Icon: During the week of May 22-26, hundreds of Americans are expected to converge in Jackson, Miss., to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides. Between May and December of 1961, the nonviolent protest against segregation in the Deep South -- which continued despite the Supreme Court's outlawing of such practices -- saw 436 black and white young people riding interstate buses together through the South, testing segregation laws.

For flouting rules on who could ride in the front of a bus or use waiting rooms designated 'Whites Only' and 'Colored,' the Freedom Riders faced vicious mob attacks, slashed tires, firebombs and jail cells. Yet after persevering through more than 60 rides, they helped to hasten desegregation and ignite a nationwide movement for civil rights.

DREAM Act Enters New Phase Among Certain Progressive States

DREAM Act Enters New Phase Among Certain Progressive States: Education may be a ticket to upward socioeconomic mobility for most college graduates, but Daniela Alulema’s bachelor’s degree in accounting hasn’t gotten her far. She says her status as an undocumented immigrant has forced her to put her career plans on hold.

For nearly a decade Congress has failed to pass a bill — the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — that would grant Alulema legal residence and free her from a life in the shadows. So Alulema, like other activists, is looking to her state for help. Administrators and faculty at New York schools and leaders at government agencies signed a petition that Alulema and other organizers put together, but to no avail.

Report: Income Inequality Poses Obstacle for Obama College Completion Drive

Report: Income Inequality Poses Obstacle for Obama College Completion Drive: The United States will not reach the Obama administration’s goal of becoming the most college-educated country in the world by 2020 unless the country eliminates the income-based inequalities that cause a gap in degree attainment between rich and poor.

Such was the conclusion of a new report released Wednesday by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education.

“Income-based inequality must be seen as a serious problem,” Dr. Andre Nichols, author of the study, titled Developing 20/20 Vision on the 2020 Degree Attainment Goal: The Threat of Income-Based Inequality in Education, said at a panel discussion at the Capitol Visitors Center.

The Root: White Upper Class Held To Lower Standard : NPR

The Root: White Upper Class Held To Lower Standard : NPR: In California, ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger destroys his family by revealing that he had a love child with the housekeeper. In New York City, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is arrested for an alleged sexual assault on a hotel maid. In Washington, D.C., Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich runs up a six-figure bill at Tiffany & Co. buying bling for his third wife, who also happens to be his former mistress.

Sounds like the lineup for an episode of The Jerry Springer Show! Has the time finally come for social scientists who blame the so-called culture of poverty for the lowly status of the black underclass to start focusing on the equally pathological culture of the wealthy, powerful — and, not coincidently, virtually all-white elite? Will conservative white politicians like Gingrich finally stop lecturing the black poor about their 'bad habits' and start cleaning up their own acts?

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Upset Over Community Roots Charter School’s Expansion - NYTimes.com

Upset Over Community Roots Charter School’s Expansion - NYTimes.com: ...In the case of Community Roots, the local fight took on a racial element, with parents and teachers from the two other schools in the building, P.S. 67 and P369K, accusing the department of unfair treatment and suggesting it was a matter of discrimination.

The P.S. 67 student body is almost entirely black and Hispanic, and a vast majority of the children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. At P369K, two-thirds qualify. Fewer than half of the Community Roots students qualify, and the enrollment is 38 percent black, 31 percent white, 12 percent multiracial and 6 percent Hispanic.

At one meeting on the expansion plan, Khem Irby of the District 13 Community Education Council put the grievances of P.S. 67 and P369K bluntly.

“Why can’t we have the same resources as charter schools? Because we’re black,” Ms. Irby said. “If you look at charter schools in New York City, they have a tradition of segregation.”

Discrimination Case May Pose Problem for Bidder - NYTimes.com

Discrimination Case May Pose Problem for Bidder - NYTimes.com:
In 2000, the federal agency charged with monitoring workplace discrimination ended its investigation of Eagle Global Logistics, a Texas freight company.

Its findings were troubling and lengthy: Eagle, run by a former college pitcher named Jim Crane, had failed to promote blacks, Hispanics and women into managerial positions, the agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found. Eagle had also demoted women from managerial positions, maintained a hostile workplace, paid blacks, Hispanics and women less than male and white counterparts, and shredded important documents, the agency said.

Taking Action to Abandon Offensive American Indian Mascots Often Mired in Controversy

Taking Action to Abandon Offensive American Indian Mascots Often Mired in Controversy: For eight decades, students at Southeast Missouri State University, a mid-sized college located on the banks of the Mississippi River in rural, conservative Cape Girardeau, had proudly rooted for its sports teams, the Indians. The old-timers said the name was adopted in the mid-1920s to honor the legacy of American Indians and their warrior traditions. The teams had an Indian mascot. There was an Indian logo. And the entrance to Houck Stadium, the university’s football arena on the edge of campus, was dominated by an imposing, 30-foot-tall statue of an American Indian man.

Then as the new millennium dawned, the university’s administration decided that maybe the use of an American Indian symbol wasn’t so cool any more. In 2003 the university set up a committee to study the possibility of a name change. The committee was short-lived.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Ku Klux Klan Violence: Town Near Appalachian Mountains Tries To Shake Memories

Ku Klux Klan Violence: Town Near Appalachian Mountains Tries To Shake Memories:"Down highway 202 on a patch of land not far from where old Forsythe's grocery store used to be, there's a dead end that holds the buried skeletons of a small Southern town.

This place along the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains is full of old bones. They are buried behind the walls of downtown Anniston's fading brick storefronts, beneath the cracked pavement where innocent blood was shed, and in the memories of black folks who have lived across the railroad tracks most of their lives.

On last Thursday morning, as the sun shone down that lonely road, Josephine Hawkins (pictured below), a lifelong resident of Anniston, sat on the edge of a guardrail and remembered the hurt that happened here on this swath of beaten-brush 50 years earlier.

California - Honor for Immigrant Activist - NYTimes.com

California - Honor for Immigrant Activist - NYTimes.com: The University of San Francisco will award an honorary doctorate at graduation ceremonies on Friday to an illegal immigrant, Isabel Castillo, 26, of Harrisonburg, Va., who has been a leading advocate for passage of the Dream Act. The legislation would give legal status to people like her, who were brought to the United States at a young age and went on to attend college. Ms. Castillo came to the United States from Mexico at age 6; she graduated with honors from Eastern Mennonite University. Stephen A. Privett, the president of the University of San Francisco, said he decided to award the degree after reading about Ms. Castillo in the On Education column in The New York Times earlier this year. He said the university wanted to “underscore the fundamental unfairness of our denying a path to citizenship to some of the most motivated college students in the country.”

The First Woman In Congress: A Crusader For Peace : NPR

The First Woman In Congress: A Crusader For Peace : NPR: The first woman elected to Congress, Jeannette Rankin, died 38 years ago today. She served two terms, each time voting against U.S. entrance into a world war.

It was the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Americans were afraid. At around noon, people in 81 percent of American households huddled around their radios and heard President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeal to a joint session of Congress to send the U.S. to war with Japan.

With the country clearly headed into battle, Montana Rep. Jeannette Rankin was in a difficult position.
The progressive Republican, who had campaigned hard on a pacifist platform, had been elected in 1940. She wasn't new to pacifism, and she wasn't afraid to buck public opinion to vote her conscience: Not long after she became the first woman in Congress more than two decades earlier, she had voted against the U.S. entering World War I.

Town Hall Meeting: Shortage of Black Male Teachers Looms as Many Choose High-Paying Professions

Town Hall Meeting: Shortage of Black Male Teachers Looms as Many Choose High-Paying Professions: In order to make a difference in the lives of students, teachers must bring a sense of dedication into the classroom and look beyond the desire for a hefty salary, proclaimed a highly acclaimed Maryland teacher Tuesday while urging college students at a town hall meeting to consider teaching as a profession.

“Let’s face it. No one goes into teaching (for money),” says 2009 Maryland Teacher of the Year Williams Thomas to applause on Tuesday as a panelist at the U.S. Department of Education’s TEACH campaign at Bowie State University.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

First Lady Welcomed at Spelman College

First Lady Welcomed at Spelman College: First lady Michelle Obama was welcomed with thunderous cheers and told the 550 students graduating from historically Black Spelman College that no matter where they go, they need to bring the school’s ideals to the world.

The graduates welled with pride upon her arrival, even as she clapped enthusiastically for their achievements. In Obama, the young women see the essence of the successful, Black career women many of them hope to become. But her message of service to others and helping the underserved also reflected her roles as first lady and a major campaigner for her husband.

Obama lauds Memphis high school’s dramatic improvement in commencement speech - The Washington Post

Obama lauds Memphis high school’s dramatic improvement in commencement speech - The Washington Post: President Obama addressed graduates of a historic African American high school in south Memphis during a commencement ceremony Monday, marking a milestone for 155 seniors and a success story for an impoverished and long-struggling urban school.

Obama told the packed Cook Convention Center, about a mile from where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in 1968, that the graduation of the Class of 2011 at Booker T. Washington High School was an “especially hopeful” occasion.

“Just a couple of years ago, this was a school where only about half the students made it to graduation,” he said. “Well, we are here today because every single one of you stood up and said, ‘Yes, we can. Yes, we can learn. Yes, we can succeed.’”

Monday, May 16, 2011

WGBH American Experience . Freedom Riders . About | PBS

WGBH American Experience . Freedom Riders . About | PBS: ABOUT THE FILM

FREEDOM RIDERS is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.

From award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Wounded Knee, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, The Murder of Emmett Till) FREEDOM RIDERS features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the Riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and journalists who witnessed the Rides firsthand. The two-hour documentary is based on Raymond Arsenault's book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice.

‘Freedom Riders,’ Civil Rights Documentary - Review - NYTimes.com

‘Freedom Riders,’ Civil Rights Documentary - Review - NYTimes.com: The filmmaker Stanley Nelson has a stunning accomplishment in “Freedom Riders,” a documentary that chronicles a crucial, devastating episode of the civil rights movement, an episode whose gruesome visuals impinged on the perception of American liberty around the world. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the freedom rides, the film (to be shown Monday on PBS) is a story of ennobled youth and noxious hatred, of decided courage and inexplicable brutality. In May 1961 the Congress of Racial Equality sought to challenge the segregation of interstate travel on public transport and sent forth activists, both black and white, and many of them students, on a bus journey through the South, where they were received with violence that law enforcers refused to tame.

Guggenheim Fellow Sachiko Murata Translating Chinese Text on Islam

Guggenheim Fellow Sachiko Murata Translating Chinese Text on Islam: From her trove of teachable moments, Dr. Sachiko Murata recalled a conversation with a student who unabashedly, and with what she hoped was benign ignorance, disparaged an Arabic title he’d spotted on her office bookshelf. “ ‘You’re such a nice person, how do you study this terrible thing?’” she was asked. “This was just seven years ago. Oh, that kind of attitude …”

Her voice trails off.

That a college student would be so reactionary troubled her, she explains, especially in an era when the essence of Islam is being obscured by terrorists twisting the message to serve their own purposes.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

In Prison Reform, Money Trumps Civil Rights - NYTimes.com

In Prison Reform, Money Trumps Civil Rights - NYTimes.com: The legal scholar Derrick A. Bell foresaw that mass incarceration, like earlier systems of racial control, would continue to exist as long as it served the perceived interests of white elites.

Thirty years of civil rights litigation and advocacy have failed to slow the pace of a racially biased drug war or to prevent the emergence of a penal system of astonishing size. Yet a few short years of tight state budgets have inspired former “get tough” true believers to suddenly denounce the costs of imprisonment. “We’re wasting tax dollars on prisons,” they say. “It’s time to shift course.”

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Shirley Sherrod Returns To USDA To Work On Civil Rights | TPMDC

Shirley Sherrod Returns To USDA To Work On Civil Rights | TPMDC: Shirley Sherrod is back at the United States Department of Agriculture, almost a year after she was forced out by a misleading video spread by conservatives falsely accusing her of discriminating against white farmers.

Sherrod will not take her old position, reports Politico, instead rejoining the agency to work on civil rights. In her new job, she'll lead a program designed to improve relations with minority farmers.

Chicago Firefighter Bias Case Ruling - NYTimes.com

Chicago Firefighter Bias Case Ruling - NYTimes.com: The City of Chicago must hire 111 black firefighter applicants who were passed over for jobs years ago and pay tens of millions of dollars in damages to about 6,000 other black candidates under a ruling issued on Friday by a federal appeals court.

The decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is only the latest in a legal battle that began with a written employment test for firefighters more than a decade ago, wound its way to the United States Supreme Court by last year and remains a matter of division and concern among the city’s firefighters.

“For some of the people involved, this is a very emotional moment,” said Joshua Karsh, a lawyer who represented black applicants who accused the city of employment discrimination. “The city could have cleared this up a long time ago.”

Friday, May 13, 2011

A College Degree, 55 Years in the Making - NYTimes.com

A College Degree, 55 Years in the Making - NYTimes.com: As she prepares for her commencement at the University of North Texas here on Saturday, Burlyce Sherrell Logan can still hear the words the institution’s president spoke at her freshman welcoming ceremony.

“ ‘There are some people here — you know who you are — that we don’t want here, but the state says can be here,’ ” she recalled the president telling the class of 2,155, clearly referring to her and the dozen other African-Americans among them. “He said we couldn’t eat in the cafeteria, we couldn’t live on campus. They set up a little area, with a little television, for us to be in when we weren’t in class.”


That was in 1956. What followed were two brutal years in which, Ms. Logan said, people threw rocks at her, pushed her in front of a moving car and burned a cross on the lawn of the house where she and five others boarded.

The Village: The Black Fatherhood Project | The Black Man Can

The Village: The Black Fatherhood Project | The Black Man Can: About the Film: First-time filmmaker Jordan Thierry offers context and conversation in this honest exploration of fatherhood in Black America. Through a telling of his own story and interviews with historians, he traces the roots of the fatherless Black home and reveals a history much more complex and profound than is often told. Putting that history into perspective is a dialogue among fathers discussing their experiences, inspirations, and insight on how communities can come together to ensure the power of a father’s love is not lost on America’s Black children.

Positive Black Male News: Chicago men give back by reading to kids | The Black Man Can

Positive Black Male News: Chicago men give back by reading to kids | The Black Man Can: Sometimes giving back to the community can take up as little as one hour a month. For the students at Chicago’s Nicholson Technology Academy, that one-hour is making a huge impact.

Chicago Public Schools started the “Real Men Read” program to give young students a male role model, something especially critical for students who attend Nicholson on the south side of the city.

“I think it’s important for kids to see someone who look like them doing something positive,” one of the men said. Volunteers range in industry from community leaders, firefighters, doctors and even local talk show hosts.

Is student group preaching white nationalism? - Politics - msnbc.com

Is student group preaching white nationalism? - Politics - msnbc.com: Last weekend, several hundred right-wing political activists gathered for a rally in the German city of Cologne to protest the 'Islamization' of the West and immigration policies that they contend threaten the 'Western culture.'

They included representatives of Vlaams Belang, a Belgian organization that changed its name and liberalized some of its positions after it was convicted of racism in 2004 by a Belgian court; the Freedom Party of Austria, a right-wing party formerly led by the late Jorg Haider, who was often denounced for seeming to praise some Nazi policies; and the National Democratic Party of Germany, which is classified by the Bavarian government as a right-wing extremist institution.

Also represented was a small but growing nonprofit U.S. organization called Youth for Western Civilization. The group, which bills itself as 'America's right-wing youth movement,' bannered a photo of the Cologne rally on its website this week, accompanying an account that declared that 'we will not falter nor fail in our attempt for the defense of the Western homeland.'

Georgia College Student a Reluctant Immigration Symbol

Georgia College Student a Reluctant Immigration Symbol: Jessica Colotl always has tried to keep a low profile, obeying the speed limit and making sure her lights work properly on her car knowing that a brush with law enforcement could lead to her deportation and cost her a college diploma.

After a few close calls, her fears were realized last spring, when she was stopped for a minor traffic violation, charged with driving without a license and turned over to immigration authorities. Colotl spent 37 days in a detention center in Alabama before she was let out and given a year to finish her studies at Kennesaw State University.

Before her arrest, Colotl had revealed her immigration status only to her closest friends. In the five weeks she was held last spring, her sorority sisters marched to have her freed, her case went viral, and she was thrust into the national spotlight.

Reality TV Trashes Black Women - Newsweek

Reality TV Trashes Black Women - Newsweek: Donald Trump’s birther battle with President Obama may have captured all the headlines, but the drama that’s really had Trump viewers glued to their sets is the catfight between his Celebrity Apprentice contestants Star Jones and NeNe Leakes.

The show has been a runaway hit for NBC this season, thanks in large part to the sniping between Jones, the embattled former cohost of The View, and Leakes, the former stripper turned Real Housewife of Atlanta. “Bossy, manipulative, conniving,” is what Leakes called Jones during a visit to The Ellen Degeneres Show. And how does Jones feel about Leakes? “I really don’t make a point of spending a lot of time with strippers,” Jones tells a NEWSWEEK reporter over pastries in Los Angeles.

Root: Positive Images Of Black Women Exist On TV : NPR

Root: Positive Images Of Black Women Exist On TV : NPR: As critics bemoan the image of the angry black woman — perpetuated by NeNe Leakes — on reality TV, shows that portray black women in a positive light go unpublicized.

I knew what was coming the minute after reading that NeNe Leakes and Star Jones would be joining the fourth season of Celebrity Apprentice.

It was pretty clear that with Leakes' hot head and Jones' slick mouth, the two were destined for on-screen conflict. So it is not shocking to see the Real Housewives of Atlanta star currently bad-mouthing Jones — on TV, on the radio and so on — to anyone who will listen, while the ex-View co-host does the same exact thing, just more eloquently.

Haitian quake refugees worry as U.S. visas expire - USATODAY.com

Haitian quake refugees worry as U.S. visas expire - USATODAY.com: Time is running out for many Haitians who came to the USA after the 2010 earthquake and now may be sent back to a country in chaos.

President-elect Michel Martell, who will be inaugurated Saturday, has an ambitious agenda to restore his country, but conditions are grim: hundreds of thousands still living in tents, scant public services, a stubborn cholera outbreak.

In the USA, meanwhile, many earthquake survivors are jobless, scrambling for medical care and relying on friends and family for food and shelter.

Visas are expiring, and immigration officials have not acted on most requests for a change in status that would let them stay in the USA and earn a living.

Census shows growth among Asian Indians - USATODAY.com

Census shows growth among Asian Indians - USATODAY.com: Indians have surpassed Filipinos as the nation's second-largest Asian population after Chinese, a testament to their growing presence in mainstream America from corporate boardrooms to TV sitcoms.

The Census Bureau today released detailed data on the largest Asian subgroups in a dozen states, including California and New York, where the presence of Asian Indians is significant.

Overshadowed by the phenomenal growth in Hispanics documented by the 2010 Census is another significant trend: Asians grew at the same dizzying 43% rate as Hispanics from 2000 to 2010. There are 50.5 million Hispanics and 14.5 million Asians.

New York and New Jersey have traditionally had the largest concentration of Indians, but the data out today show that California's Silicon Valley has lured a substantial number.

D.C. charter schools exclude the disabled, advocates say - The Washington Post

D.C. charter schools exclude the disabled, advocates say - The Washington Post: The District’s public charter schools discriminate against students with disabilities — especially those with significant needs — in their admissions policies and often steer them instead to expensive private schools, special education advocates contend in a complaint filed Thursday with the Justice Department.

The city’s 52 publicly financed, independently operated charter schools, which educate nearly 29,000 students, are supposed to be open to all, with admission by lottery when demand exceeds available slots. But attorneys for the Bazelon Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, cite data showing that the city’s traditional public schools serve far more students with the highest level of needs than the charter schools do.

Cradle of Movement Hosts MLB's Civil Rights Game - NYTimes.com

Cradle of Movement Hosts MLB's Civil Rights Game - NYTimes.com: Major League Baseball is coming to the home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to pay tribute to those whose life's work embodies the spirit of the Civil Rights movement.

Before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, or black and white Americans fought side by side in the armed forces, Jackie Robinson dared to desegregate the country's favorite pastime.


For their efforts, baseball will honor Academy-award winner Morgan Freeman, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks and Grammy Award-winning artist Carlos Santana during its annual Civil Rights weekend.

Sixty Years Later, Black Educator Gets Recognition at University of Arkansas Graduation

Sixty Years Later, Black Educator Gets Recognition at University of Arkansas Graduation: If you scour the annals of Little Rock’s racial history, the name Lothaire Scott Green isn’t likely to be listed among the better-known Black icons and power brokers of Arkansas’ capital city. Yet this genteel Southern lady, stalwart public school teacher and intrepid mother of three, including Ernest Green of the Little Rock Nine and the first Black graduate of Central High School, came to symbolize for her family and community what it meant to take a stand.

In the 1940s, Scott Green rallied with her fellow Black teacher Suzie Morris, who, with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney Thurgood Marshall, sued the Little Rock schools, demanding equal pay. It was Scott Green who risked family and her job when she ushered attorney Marshall into their home — a pristine Craftsman bungalow on West 21st Street — when he came to Little Rock to work on the lawsuit.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

BBC News - Peru's minorities battle racism

BBC News - Peru's minorities battle racism: There is a saying in Peru - 'el que no tiene de Inga tiene de Mandinga' - which means every Peruvian has either some indigenous or African blood.

It is an often-quoted proverb used to explain the country's blend of races.

Racial mixing began mixing with the Spanish conquistadors who overran the Inca Empire in the 16th Century, and continued with successive waves of African slaves, indentured Chinese labourers and migrants from Japan and Europe.

The phrase speaks of a melting-pot nation but does not hint at Peru's deep-set prejudices.

The country has socio-economic gaps along race lines and its inherent, if subtle, discrimination can mean an indigenous woman may only ever work as a maid; a black man may only ever aspire to be a hotel doorman.

- The Washington Post

- The Washington Post: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday that his agency would quickly adopt most of the recommendations contained in a two year study that looked at USDA’s history of discrimination and its ongoing civil rights failings.

The recommendations range from making the department’s rural development programs more accessible to women to appointing a “chief diversity officer” in each of the agency’s state offices.

The $8 million assessment by an outside group was spurred by a promise from the Obama administration to bring “cultural transformation” to a department that has been guilty of some of the government’s most egregious cases of discrimination.

“There is a massive effort within USDA to change the culture,” Vilsack said in an interview. “There is a real commitment from the top down.”

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Operation Geronimo: U.S. misused Geronimo's name in Bin Laden raid - latimes.com

Operation Geronimo: U.S. misused Geronimo's name in Bin Laden raid - latimes.com: 'Geronimo—ekia.' With this coded message, sent on May 1, a U.S. Navy SEALs commando squad signaled the death of Osama bin Laden, the 'enemy killed in action.' The mission was pulled off without a hitch, but in the week since then, debate has raged in some circles about the code name.

The administration hasn't explained why the operation targeting Bin Laden used the name of one of the nation's best-known Native Americans, saying the selection process of names for such missions is confidential. But the use of Geronimo's name speaks to the powerful, if unexamined, hold that the nation's 'Indian wars' continue to have on our popular consciousness.

Geronimo, whose real name was Guyaale, 'the Yawner,' was" a member of the Chiricahua Apache, a group that ranged across New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico from the 1820s to the 1880s. His relations with the U.S. were not always hostile.

White women more likely to be childless, Census says - USATODAY.com

White women more likely to be childless, Census says - USATODAY.com: White women are more likely to be childless than other racial or ethnic groups, according to new data from the U.S. Census.

Findings from the 2010 Current Population Survey also show that black women were more likely to be childless than Hispanic women; percentages for Asian women more closely resemble those for blacks and Hispanics than whites.
The Census Bureau uses age 44 as the age for completion of childbearing. The data show that 20.6% of white women were childless, compared with 17.2% of black women, 15.9% of Asian women and 12.4% of Hispanic women.
"One of the things that goes hand-in-hand with childlessness is high levels of education," says D'Vera Cohn of Pew Research Center, who co-authored a report on childlessness last year. "White women are more likely to be college-educated. That could be one key reason for the numbers you're seeing."

Fifty Years Later, Students Retrace 1961 Freedom Ride

Fifty Years Later, Students Retrace 1961 Freedom Ride: Charles Reed Jr. skipped his college graduation ceremony to do something much more significant to him: retracing the original 1961 Freedom Ride and paying tribute to those who helped win the civil rights that his generation enjoys.

Reed says missing Friday's graduation doesn't compare to the sacrifices the original Freedom Riders made when they challenged the South's segregation laws: quitting jobs, dropping out of college and, ultimately, risking their lives.

“What the Freedom Rides did 50 years ago paved the way for what I have today as an African-American,” said Reed, a 21-year-old business administration major at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg.

International Outreach Undertaken by Thurgood Marshall College Fund Schools

International Outreach Undertaken by Thurgood Marshall College Fund Schools: The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) has launched an International Collaboration Group (ICG) as part of an extensive global outreach effort by public historically Black colleges and universities. Formed by 11 of the 47 TMCF-member institutions, the ICG is designed to forge international partnerships while producing more “world-ready” college graduates.

TMCF participants plan to launch projects in both developed and developing nations. Consortium schools include Cheney University of Pennsylvania, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University, York College, Central State University, University of the District of Columbia, Southern University, Prairie View A & M University, Elizabeth City State University and the University of the Virgin Islands

Perspective: Increase Diversity Among Division I College Football Coaches

Perspective: Increase Diversity Among Division I College Football Coaches: There is no question that Blacks have made tremendous progress on the field and on the sidelines. But Blacks and other people of color are still not major participants in the money side of college sports. Players, of course, do not get paid, but those in the higher echelons of college sports certainly do. And those faces remain, even today, almost exclusively White. How can this picture be changed? One answer is the implementation of a Rooney Rule at the collegiate level. This is a proven mechanism to increase the hiring of underrepresented people both inside and outside the sports business.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Gender stereotypes easing more for girls than boys - USATODAY.com

Gender stereotypes easing more for girls than boys - USATODAY.com: ...Gender stereotypes for America's children are less rigid than in the past, but they remain a pervasive part of popular culture and a benchmark for parents. Moreover, the changes in recent decades have been more dramatic for girls than boys.

So Ablow quickly found support. One Million Moms, an offshoot of the conservative American Family Association, urged followers to write protest letters to J. Crew and asserted that 'nontraditional activities ... can be destructive and damaging to a child's identity and self-esteem.'

Just as quickly, there was a backlash from people who liked Beckett's pink toenails. Hundreds of people accepted a Facebook invitation to join 'Pink Toenail Polish Day' on Monday, and Anne Fausto-Sterling, a professor of biology and gender studies at Brown University, urged Lyons' critics to 'take a deep breath' and not worry if kids don't always fit a 'cardboard cutout stereotype of gender roles.'

Pitt Event To Celebrate Black Athletes

Pitt Event To Celebrate Black Athletes: ...Tuesday, he, along with many other of Pitt's African-American athletes, will have the opportunity to tell stories as they are celebrated at an event called “Athletics at Pitt: A Century at the Forefront of Change.”

“A lot has changed and for the better since then,” Grier said, “and an event like this will help those of us who lived it tell our story to the younger generation.”

The hosts for the celebration at the Petersen Events Center will be Pitt's athletic department and the school's African-American Alumni Council. It will mark the 100th anniversary of the first African-American athletes to graduate from Pitt.

The emcee will be NBC's Bob Costas, and it will commemorate the achievements of Pitt's African-American student athletes since 1911, when track stars Harry Ray Wooten from Oakdale, Pa., and Hubbard Hollensworth from Owego, N.Y., became the first African-American athletes to graduate from the university.

Federal K-12 Education Programs Face Obstacles to Renewal

Federal K-12 Education Programs Face Obstacles to Renewal: While both Republicans and Democrats call it an issue where they may find common ground in 2011, Congress is facing tough choices on the future of the nation’s main K-12 education law—including how to respond to calls from Congressional Black Caucus members to focus more attention on low-income schools.

“To achieve our nation’s fundamental promise of equality, we must start with equal education and opportunity,” says U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., a CBC member who is proposing major changes in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), more popularly known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

Asian American Publications Seeing Growth on U.S. Campuses

Asian American Publications Seeing Growth on U.S. Campuses: As a high schooler, Denise Wong soured on journalism while writing for a youth newspaper produced by the New York Daily News. She felt stories about ethnic minority and openly gay teens were so tightly edited that they lost nuances crucial to news coverage of those demographics.

But Wong’s feelings about journalism have changed since joining the staff of hardboiled magazine, the Asian American student publication at the University of California, Berkeley.

“I love expressing myself without conforming to expectations. I’m learning a lot about Asians and getting to dialogue about it,” Wong says.

Families along U.S.-Mexico border face tough school choices - The Washington Post

Families along U.S.-Mexico border face tough school choices - The Washington Post: ...There are more mixed-status families living in the United States than ever before — non-citizens and citizens under the same roof. Many of those families will be affected by the Obama administration’s aggressive deportation plans, with a record 400,000 immigrants expected to be returned to their home countries this year. It’s likely that more than 20,000 of those deportees have children who are U.S. citizens, according to experts who have analyzed federal data.

Parents are left to choose between dividing the family between two countries, to keep children who are U.S. citizens in U.S. schools, or moving together to Mexico or Central America, where the education is inferior and the language is often foreign to U.S.-born children.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Freedom Riders, 50 years on, see today’s youths as disconnected from racism fight - The Washington Post

Freedom Riders, 50 years on, see today’s youths as disconnected from racism fight - The Washington Post:
JACKSON, MISS. — A half-dozen blacks and whites sat with boxed sandwiches and sweet tea in a community center on a recent afternoon, wrestling with what’s changed — and what hasn’t — since the Freedom Riders came to town 50 years ago.

On Mother’s Day, 1961, a bus full of young people was firebombed in Anniston, Ala. The passengers were black and white, one of several groups that rode from Washington, D.C., to force the integration of interstate transportation on a reluctant South.
In the following days, other Freedom Riders were arrested by segregationist city leaders here in Jackson and taken to the state penitentiary. Over the next four months, supporters from across the country descended on bus stations, train depots and airports across the South. One wave followed another, a total of 436 people who risked their lives to face down angry mobs and the volatile Ku Klux Klan.
“We’re still trying to see each other as human,” said Albert Sykes, a 28-year-old black man. “We’re still struggling with this.”"

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Plan would replace controversial grave markers – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

Plan would replace controversial grave markers – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs: After more than a half-century, gravestones etched with racial epithets in a California cemetery may be replaced, thanks to a plan by the California Prison Industry Authority.

The graves, in Mormon Island Cemetery in El Dorado Hills, were transferred from a cemetery in a town called Negro Hill to make way for the construction of Folsom Dam.

On the gravestones, the word “Negro” has been replaced with a racial epithet.

On Thursday, the California Prison Industry Authority offered to replace the gravestones free of charge.

“That graveyard is right around the corner from our offices, and it’s pretty easy to know that that’s the right thing to do,” Charles Pattillo, general manager of the authority, said Friday.

U.S. Warns Schools Against Checking Immigration Status - NYTimes.com

U.S. Warns Schools Against Checking Immigration Status - NYTimes.com: Federal officials issued a memorandum to the nation’s school districts on Friday saying it was against the law for education officials to seek information that might reveal the immigration status of children applying for enrollment.

Civil liberties advocates and others have complained in recent months that many school districts are seeking children’s immigration papers as a prerequisite for enrollment. Some state and local officials have also considered bills to require prospective students to reveal their citizenship or immigration status.

“We have become aware of student enrollment practices that may chill or discourage the participation, or lead to the exclusion, of students based on their or their parents’ or guardians’ actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status,” said the memo, from Justice and Education Department officials. “These practices contravene federal law.”

Friday, May 06, 2011

Nigerian Native Overcame Obstacles on Way to Becoming Wayne State Graduation Speaker

Nigerian Native Overcame Obstacles on Way to Becoming Wayne State Graduation Speaker: Students at Spelman College were ecstatic over the scheduled appearance this month of First Lady Michelle Obama as commencement speaker. That was the case too at South Carolina State University where former Secretary of State Colin Powell is set to speak this month.

The spring commencement speaker likely to steal the show this year, when it’s all said and done however, will likely be Victor Chukwueke, an unknown 25-year-old biochemistry and chemical biology major who addressed fellow graduates of the College of Liberal Arts at Detroit’s Wayne State University on Thursday.

Chukwueke, a Nigerian who has lived in Michigan for 10 years, has spent most of his life overcoming more obstacles to living a `normal’ life than most spring commencement speakers combined. His life story is so inspiring, school officials say, they decided to make a rare exception to the long standing rule of having only the valedictorian speak from the student body.

Muslim leaders say they were taken off Tenn flight

Muslim leaders say they were taken off Tenn flight: Two Muslim religious leaders say they were asked to leave a commercial airliner in Memphis on Friday and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard.

Masudur Rahman, who is also an adjunct instructor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, said by phone from the terminal at Memphis International Airport that he and another imam had already been allowed to board their Delta Connection flight to Charlotte, N.C., before they were asked to get off the plane.

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Jon Allen in Atlanta confirmed the incident and said it was not initiated by that agency.

A Delta Air Lines spokeswoman said the flight was operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which is also based in Atlanta.

'We take security and safety very seriously and the event is currently under investigation,' Atlantic Southeast spokesman Jarek Beem said Friday evening.

Both passengers are Memphis-area residents. Rahman said he was dressed in traditional Indian clothing and his traveling companion was dressed in Arab garb, including traditional headgear.

Study: Blacks suffering strokes often call friends, not 911 - The Washington Post

Study: Blacks suffering strokes often call friends, not 911 - The Washington Post: Most African Americans call a friend or relative instead of 911 when they have symptoms of a stroke, potentially delaying arrival at a hospital and access to lifesaving treatment, according to a new study.

The findings, published online Thursday in the journal Stroke, offer a clue for researchers seeking to understand the disparities in stroke treatment between blacks and whites. The findings have particular significance for predominantly black urban populations, researchers said. The study, by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center, included interviews with stroke patients at Washington Hospital Center, the Washington region’s largest hospital.

Thursday, May 05, 2011

New York More Diverse Than Los Angeles Thanks To Brooklyn Neighborhood: Study

New York More Diverse Than Los Angeles Thanks To Brooklyn Neighborhood: Study: After a decade of playing second fiddle to Los Angeles, New York now reigns supreme as the most diverse city in America, according to census data.

Bloomberg reports that perhaps nowhere is New York's increased diversity more evident then in one Brooklyn neighborhood.

From Bloomberg:

The section of Dyker Heights in southwest Brooklyn, long dominated by Italian-Americans, had one of the biggest increases in diversity of any census tract in the nation’s most-populous city. The area of 1,133 people has seen an inflow of Asian residents, a group that is helping to transform the profile of New York, along with those of other major municipalities throughout the U.S.

“Some of the residents here were so concerned about blacks moving in, they didn’t even notice the influx of Asians,” said Nick Venezia, 33, manager of Ben Bay Realty Co. in Brooklyn.

Instruments Of Change: Music Of The Freedom Riders, 50 Years Later : A Blog Supreme : NPR

Instruments Of Change: Music Of The Freedom Riders, 50 Years Later : A Blog Supreme : NPR: Exactly 50 years ago today, 13 'Freedom Riders' — seven black and six white — rode public buses into the Deep South. Their mission: to test a brand-new federal law prohibiting segregation in public bus terminals.

When the riders reached Alabama, the center for racial havoc and injustice during the modern civil rights era, all hell broke loose. One bus was destroyed by a mob and bomb, almost killing the passengers. The riders in the second bus were beaten by another mob in Birmingham.

Drummer Art Blakey and many other jazz musicians were acutely aware of what was happening, and their dream of social justice resulted in one of the most creative periods in jazz history. Here, we honor a few of the musicians who wielded their instruments in the pursuit of social harmony and change.

Senate Indian Affairs panel to discuss 'Geronimo' code name in bin Laden mission -

Senate Indian Affairs panel to discuss 'Geronimo' code name in bin Laden mission -: Today's hearing by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on racial stereotypes was scheduled before the killing of Osama bin Laden, but the panel will take the opportunity to discuss complaints by some Native Amerians of the use of the code name 'Geronimo' for the military operation, commitee staffers say.

A webcast of the hearing, which is entitled 'Stolen Identities: The Impact of Racist Stereotypes on Indigenous People,' can be seen here at 2:15 p.m. ET.

Loretta Tuell, the committee's chief counsel, says in a statement that concerns over the issuee of linking 'one of the greatest Native American heroes' with the terrorist leader 'is an example of the kinds of issues we intended to address' at the hearing.

'These inappropriate uses of Native American icons and cultures are prevalent throughout our society, and the impacts to Native and non-Native children are devastating,' Tuell says. 'We intend to open the forum to talk about them.'

Central Park 5 still seeking justice in NYC jogger case

Central Park 5 still seeking justice in NYC jogger case: 'You always hear about black on black crime. Why is it that only our race is color-connected to crime? White people commit crimes against white, Asian against Asian. You never hear about other groups committing crimes against their own people. It is a constant process of criminalizing and seeing black men as animals, savages and beasts fixated on criminal behavior,' Barron noted. 'Do we commit crime, yes, but it is not peculiar to us.'

When asked why the city refuses to settle with these men, the councilman suggested that doing so would create an embarrassment by exposing the abuses of the criminal justice system. This would force the city to address the police practice of coercion. 'Why not settle? Because if they do settle it is an indictment-- coercing innocent people into saying they're guilty.

Vicksburg Seeks to Turn Pioneer Black Education Scholar’s Home Into Museum

Vicksburg Seeks to Turn Pioneer Black Education Scholar’s Home Into Museum: The Vicksburg, Miss., home of the first Black woman in the United States to receive a doctorate in education could be preserved and turned into an African-American museum if a state grant is awarded.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Monday accepted transfer of the home, which belonged to the late Dr. Jane McAllister, from its current owner, Yolande Robbins, in an effort to restore it through a grant program focusing on the preservation of the Civil Rights Era.

“This is a great opportunity for us to take a dinosaur of a building and bring life back to it,” says mayor Paul Winfield. “I saw it as a great opportunity for us to preserve a significant history of Vicksburg.”

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

The code name ‘Geronimo' angers American Indian groups - KGUN9 On Your Side, Tucson News, Weather & Sports

The code name ‘Geronimo' angers American Indian groups - KGUN9 On Your Side, Tucson News, Weather & Sports: 'Geronimo EKIA' – or Geronimo, enemy killed in action – are the words that followed the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and set off a firestorm of controversy from many American Indian groups over the code name.

The moniker that the military assigned to the raid and possibly the terrorist leader himself has elicited strong responses from many organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians.'To associate a native warrior bin Laden is not an accurate reflection of history, and it undermines the military service of native people,' said President Jefferson Keel.

Geronimo was part of the Apache tribe and led his people against expansion by Mexico and the United States. He was both revered and reviled, according to Jay VanOrden, a retired Director of Field Services at the Arizona Historical Society.

National Museum of the American Latino recommended by presidential panel - The Washington Post

National Museum of the American Latino recommended by presidential panel - The Washington Post: A presidential commission, created during the George W. Bush administration to study the feasibility of a National Museum of the American Latino, is recommending that a museum be built near the Capitol. The commission report, to be delivered to the White House and Congress on Thursday, also recommends that the museum be part of the Smithsonian Institution.

In very clear language, the report states that national recognition of the Hispanic contribution to the United States is long overdue. “The Mall, more than any other public space in our country does indeed tell the story of America, and yet that story is not complete. There must also be a living monument that recognizes that Latinos were here well before 1776 and that in this new century, the future is increasingly Latino, more than fifty million people and growing,” the report says.